The Provision of Hope

I want to start today off by asking some of you long time bible students a question. What is the theme of the entire Bible? I mean from Genesis all the way to the last book Revelation, what is the theme? Take a moment to discuss, and I want to hear your answers. (Take 3 minutes for discussion)

You all came up with great answers, and much of what you said, describes the answer I would suggest to you. “The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan” In every book you read in the Bible, we can see a battle taking place between Satan, a fallen angel who rebeled against God, and Christ.

On earth, it began with the fall of man. Adam and Eve were living in the garden of Eden, which is earth before there were any problems. Isn’t it fun to fantasize about a world with no problems? One where, we don’t turn on the news, and we find out about the devastation of another hurricane, or tornado. We wouldn’t see fires and earthquakes taking away lives. We wouldn’t see violence in our country over race or any other subjects. We wouldn’t have fear over terrosism of any kind. We wouldn’t have to worry if whats being reported in the news is true or not. We wouldn’t be forced into having to take sides in political issues. Can you imagine a world, where we all genuinely, just got a long. Sounds almost unimaginable right, or to good to be true? Well in the beginning, thats how the world was. God had created a perfect world for his most beloved creation, mankind. Unfortunately, as we learn in the book of Genesis, the world did not stay this way for long through the introducing of sin. Adam and Eve were the only humans who experienced the world perfect, and a world which was imperfect. Imagine that transition. It must have felt quite different. But for Adam and Eve, and for the descendents of them which remained faithful to the creator God, hope was not all lost. There was a REAL HOPE. God had made a provision for a fallen world. He had a plan. Over long periods of time, his plan became more and more known as God revealed it through His chosen people and through the prophets.

Jesus was the plan.

Because of the fall, Adam and Eve and their sons Cain and Abel had to learn the consequences of sin. Because of sin, they had to learn to sacrifice. This came in the form of a spotless innocent lamb. For Abel, a keeper of the sheep, sacrificing a lamb, would’ve been especially difficult, but he brought as what was called for. Cain did not. His offering was not accepted. This led to Cain’s anger, and eventually murdering his brother Abel. Sin was and still is a slippery slope. The world that Cain and Abel had been born into was different than that of Adam and Eve. Sin was there, death was also now present, because of sin. Because of sin, came violence, hatred, and immorality of all sorts. The world was no longer what God had created it to be.